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Maurice Ekpong Chairs the 11th Africa Sugar Conference in Nairobi

AJSD's Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief Maurice Ekpong was the Chair at the recently concluded 11th Africa Sugar and Ethanol Conference which held at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill Nairobi Kenya April 24 -

AJSD’s Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief Maurice Ekpong was the Chair at the recently concluded 11th Africa Sugar and Ethanol Conference which held at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill Nairobi Kenya April 24 – 25, 2024. The annual conference organized by Informa Connect which can be viewed by clicking https://informaconnect.com/africa-sugar/ is the premier gathering of stakeholders including leading industry players, policy makers and business leaders across Africa’s sugar and ethanol sector. The African Journal for Sustainable Development (AJSD) was a media partner for the event. Below is an excerpt of Maurice’s opening remarks:

“I am pleased to welcome you to the 11th Africa Sugar and Ethanol Conference holding in this beautiful city of Nairobi in Kenya. My appreciation goes to our gracious hosts Informa Connect having worked tirelessly with the support of partners, sponsors and exhibitors too numerous to mention to create an enabling environment for stakeholders across Africa to meet, share experiences and collaborate for the sustainable development of Africa’s sugar and ethanol sector.

According to The Sugar Association, “sugar is one of the world’s oldest documented commodities with domestication of sugar cane reported around 8000 BCE. Since cultivation practices spread from southern Europe to Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean and Zanzibar in present-day East Africa between 900 – 1000 CE[1]”, commercial sugar cane cultivation, processing, trading and consumption has become a permanent part of the way of life of virtually all African societies, contributing significantly to the livelihoods of millions of households at a micro level and the GDP of the continent at a macro level.

In view of the comparative progress of the sugar sector in other regions of the world, the question must be asked if the African continent has taken full advantage of the many opportunities that the sugar value chain offers to tackle its critical development challenges.  To answer, a cursory examination of a few data points may provide valuable insight:

In the 2022/2023 review year, no single African country was among the top 10 producers of raw sugar in the world according to the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA)[2]. On the contrary, Brazil, a country with a population of 215.3 million (World Bank, 2022) and a land mass of 8.5 million Km² (CIA, World Factbook) produced 38.05 million metric tons of raw sugar or 21.7% of global output[3] and 36.5 billion liters of ethanol (IEA) or 30.7% of global output[4].

In contrast, the entire African continent with six and a half times the population of Brazil at 1.4 billion people (World Bank, 2022) and a land mass of 30.3 million km², three and a half times the size of Brazil, (CIA, World Factbook) almost didn’t show up on the radar. Many African countries remain net importers of raw sugar and ethanol in spite of having suitable agro-climatic conditions for the commercial development of the value chain. This over reliance on imports from outside the continent is unsustainable, resulting in what I term as widespread ‘sugar and ethanol poverty’ that puts avoidable pressure on local economies.

No doubt, raw material security, value optimization and waste elimination is at the heart of the concept of sustainability with SDG 12 promoting responsible consumption and production in a circular economy. The sugar sector provides one of the fastest pathways to economic circularity with the potential for commercial bio refining into many end products including for instance clean energy.

Africa faces an energy paradox. In spite of generating huge volumes of biomass annually, the continent remains energy poor. Data from the Global Bioenergy Statistics Report published in 2023 shows that in the 2022 review year, “46.4 million tons of wood pellets, 1.9 billion m³ of wood fuel, and 54.9 million tons of wood charcoal were produced worldwide. While Europe is the leading producer of wood pellets, accounting for over 55% of the global supply, Africa leads in the production of wood fuels and charcoal, representing 37% and 66% of global production respectively”. The report further notes that “among renewable energy sources, the African continent has the highest renewable energy share (48%) due to the use of traditional biomass for heating and cooking”[5] with the unintended consequence of 600,000 African deaths yearly comprising mostly women and children from indoor pollution.[6]

The International Energy Agency (IEA) lends credence to the continents energy conundrum, reporting unequivocally that “Africa – which will be home to one-fifth of the world’s population by 2030 – is set to play an increasingly important role in the global energy ecosystem. Across the region, demand for energy is growing, but modern energy use per capita remains among the lowest in the world, despite ample energy resources across the continent. Africa accounts for just 6% of global energy use and less than 3% of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Panel Discussion From Left to Right: Maurice Ekpong Executive Director AJSD, Devesh Dukhira CEO Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, Frederick North-Coombes CEO Transmara Sugar Company, Nick Jackson MD Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation

Picture Above: Panel Discussion From Left to Right: Maurice Ekpong Executive Director AJSD, Devesh Dukhira CEO Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, Frederick North-Coombes CEO Transmara Sugar Company, Nick Jackson MD Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation

Boosting access to secure and sustainable energy in Africa remains essential. More than 600 million people on the continent currently live without access to electricity – and nearly 1 billion do not have access to clean cooking supplies.”[7] I am certain most of us will agree that the sugar value chain can help ameliorate this problem.

The IEA concludes with the view that “Supporting these ambitions will require a step-change in financing, including from the international community and the private sector. To achieve Africa’s development goals, as well as energy access and climate objectives, energy spending on the continent needs to more than double by 2030, with more than two-thirds going to clean energy.” This is a clarion call to stakeholders in Africa’s sugar sector to do the needful.  

Although the continent as a whole appears to be punching below its weight relative to potential, at a more granular level, some countries and corporations are making significant progress. Take Mauritius for instance which produced comparatively more raw sugar per capita (0.26 MT) than Brazil (0.17 MT) in the 2023 review year[8] while generating about 14% of their national electricity requirement from sugarcane bagasse.[9]  Similar success stories abound in a number of African countries in spite of country specific risks, challenges and setbacks.

These challenges may be a blessing in disguise, especially if long term demand remains a barometer for identifying market opportunity. This is especially important considering that by 2050 Africa will be home to nearly half of children born in the world as per a 2014 UNICEF report[10] with the population of the continent projected to increase to 2.4 billion inhabitants by 2050 according to the African Development Bank. This potentially represents a young and vibrant population demanding sugar and its by-products and eager and ready to work. Furthermore, “Africa has 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, an abundance of fresh water and about 300 days of sunshine each year”.[11]

Over the next two days, the best and brightest minds in the sugar and ethanol space including leading institutions in Africa and around the world will seek through this conference to turn these challenges into opportunities for the sustainable development of the sector. We will be having expert presentations and analysis, panel discussions, question and answer sessions and loads of networking opportunities.

In this respect, Informa Connect supported by all the gracious sponsors and partners of this conference continue to nurture the ecosystem that will enable the continent leapfrog, maximizing the huge potentials in the sugar value chain while enabling the continent pursue its aspirations for long term sugar and ethanol sufficiency. This is commendable.

I implore you to seize the auspicious opportunity of your participation to both learn and make the necessary connections that will move the institutions and countries you represent forward. Once this is done, a cardinal objective of the conference would have been achieved and a further milestone reached on the long but sure road to a sustainable sugar sector in Africa.

On behalf of the organizers and from myself, wishing you a fruitful conference!”


[1] https://www.sugar.org/sugar/history/.  

[2] Sugar Report, USDA Global Market Analysis, November 2023

[3] Sugar Report, USDA Global Market Analysis, November 2023

[4] https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/share-of-global-ethanol-output-by-country-between-2017-and-2023

[5] Global Bioenergy Statistics Report, World Bioenergy Association, 10th Edition 2023

[6] https://www.iea.org/news/african-development-bank-president-adesina-to-co-chair-clean-cooking-in-africa-summit-with-leaders-of-tanzania-norway-and-iea

[7] https://www.iea.org/regions/africa

[8] Per capita production is estimated by dividing raw sugar output by population for the review year (Brazil 215.3 million population produced 38.4 million MT raw sugar and Mauritius 1.263 million population produced 33,105 MT raw sugar)

[9] https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/mauritius-uses-sugar-as-alternative-way-to-generate-electricity/

[10] Generation 2030/Africa Report, UNICEF  August 13, 2014

[11] Feed Africa Strategy, Africa Development Bank, 2019

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